Shocked that companies and mutual funds would invest OPM (Other People's Money) in high-risk investments, the Shocked Investor was originally on a mission to find out if our money ended up in these dubious instruments. This blog now also discusses other financial topics, such as straddles, options, gold, natural gas, agri/food stocks, and the collapse of the US Dollar.

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Itau-Unibanco, the excellently-managed Brazilian bank which trades in new York under symbol ITUB (click to receive buy/sell alerts), Itaú announced net income of R$ 6.399 billion in the first half of 2010, up 39.6% over the same period last year. It was the highest result among Brazilian private banks.

The bank's profit also rose in the second quarter, to R$ 3.298 billion, against R $ 2.429 billion a year earlier. The result came in slightly above expectations of analysts.

Expansion in loan portfolio

The improved results in the first half is attributed, among other factors, the expansion of loan portfolio. During the period, the loan growth was 11.4%, with total balance of $ 296.2 billion.

The bank's total assets amounted to R $ 651.6 billion, a growth of 9.3%. With this number, the bank remained as the largest private financial institution in Brazil.

Equity grew 16.5% and ended in June for $ 55 billion. Gross profit from financial intermediation was R $ 14.9 billion, down 7.4% compared to the number of the same period last year, when it was $ 16 billion.